so far from the wonder
by ausllydawmoon
Summary: She just won Austin Moon's first ever talent search, and immediately she's thrown into his world of constantly being in the spotlight, what with her having to live with him for a month. She soon learns that fame isn't everything it's made out to be, but more importantly she learns that it's really hard to be just friends with everyone's favorite heartthrob. Auslly. One-Shot.


_Congratulations, Ally Dawson! You have been chosen as the winner of the Austin Moon Talent Search! Included in this package is one plane ticket to fly out to Los Angeles, where Austin Moon himself will become your mentor and teach you all there is to know about making it in the music business! Have fun, and don't forget that your talent will only get better with practice!_

She rereads the letter about seven hundred times, her jaw slackened in disbelief. She actually _won_.

Austin Moon is one of the most famous pop stars in the country, and possibly even the world. He's talented in all aspects of performing: singing, dancing, songwriting, you name it. She's a fan of his, but more as an inspiration than a celebrity crush. So of course, when she read online that he was holding a talent search to find someone to mentor, she immediately went to work on trying to write the perfect song. She recorded herself singing it while playing piano and sent it in, but with the thousands of other applicants, she never even _imagined_ that she would actually _win_.

But the letter in her hands says otherwise.

She immediately calls her parents and her best friend to tell them the good news, and then she starts packing. She'll be in L.A. for a month, and she only has three days before she leaves.

They really should've given her more warning. How inconsiderate.

What does one wear when meeting Austin Moon? Will he expect her to dress nice to meet him? She doesn't think he's like that, but what if he is? And will she have time to clean up after the flight? It's about five hours and she wants to be comfortable, not to mention that she'll probably fall asleep and look like a mess when she gets off the plane. Would whoever is taking her to meet Austin be offended if she asked them to wait a few minutes while she freshens up?

This is a lot more stressful than she imagined it'd be when she sent in her application. But she just packs as many clothes as she can fit in her suitcase and hopes for the best.

* * *

She walks out of baggage claim with her luggage and looks around for a sign or something indicating whoever is here to pick her up. She checks the letter again to see if there were any instructions, but she finds none.

She scans the area once again, and her eyes fall on a small sign that reads _Ally Dawson_ in big black lettering. She grins and walks over to the man holding the sign.

"Miss Ally Dawson?" he says.

She nods, too nervous and excited to speak.

"Excellent. I'll take your bags, and you can follow me to the limo."

The man takes her suitcase and carry-on, and she follows him outside to the sleek black limousine. He packs her bags in the trunk and opens the door for her. She climbs into the limo, taking in the interior in awe. It's just like the ones she's seen on reality shows and in interviews she's watched online. She can't believe that _she's_ sitting in one now.

The driver shuts the door and gets in the front seat, starting the engine and driving away from the airport. She stares out the window at the bustling city of Los Angeles, and it's even better than she dreamed it would be.

"So…where are we going?" she asks the driver.

"Austin Moon's mansion, of course," he says. "You'll be staying there for a month as part of the contest."

"Oh," she replies.

 _Living_ with Austin Moon? She didn't realize that was included. Is that really safe for him? She knows _she_ would never try anything, but he has some crazy fans out there. But still, she's kind of glad she doesn't have to live in a hotel for a month. And it'll be interesting to see Austin Moon doing everyday things like eating breakfast on the couch or just watching TV. If he even does things so mundane.

She knows his equally famous girlfriend doesn't live with him, but she can't help but wonder how often Kira Starr will be over.

It feels like it's been hours when they travel into Austin's gated neighborhood and the mansion she's seen in so many photos comes into view. The limo stops in front and the driver gets out and opens her door. She climbs out of the limo, unable to take her eyes off the _palace_ in front of her. It's even bigger in person.

The driver hands over her luggage, causing her to look at him. He tips his hat. "And this is where I leave you," he says. "Just walk up those steps to the front door. Good luck."

He gets back in the limo and drives away. She turns to look at the mansion again and takes a deep breath. _This is it_.

She follows the cobblestone path through his front yard, in between two huge patches of grass dotted with trees. She walks around a majestic fountain and finds herself standing in front of a wooden double-door. She rings the doorbell and clutches the handle of her suitcase in anticipation, trying to calm her pounding heart.

The door swings open, and she's expecting to be greeted by some old, kind butler, or maybe an attractive young assistant. But instead she's met with a mop of blond hair and swirling hazel eyes and twinkly white teeth and holy crap it's _him_.

She takes an involuntary step back in surprise, and she knows she must look like she's seen a ghost. She doesn't tend to get star struck, but Austin Moon is standing in front of her in the doorway of his mansion wearing his signature jeans and button up and she's shocked that this is happening, to say the least.

"Hey," he chuckles.

She blinks and snaps out of her shock, shaking her head. "Uh…hi…" she replies lamely. "I'm – "

"Ally Dawson? I know. I'm the one who ran the contest." He winks at her and opens the door wider.

She walks inside, entranced by the interior of his mansion, leaving her luggage forgotten outside. She's vaguely aware of Austin rushing to grab it, but she hardly cares about her belongings when the painting hanging on the wall to her left could probably pay her entire tuition at her dream school.

"I'll show you your room, and then I'll give you the grand tour," the blond says, leading her up the stairs as he struggles with her luggage.

A voice in the back of her mind chastises her for allowing _the_ Austin Moon to carry her bags, but she's still too awestruck by his house to really pay attention to it.

Austin walks down a hall at the top of the stairs and stops in front of a door near the end. He sets down her bags and opens the door, and she brings her luggage inside the room, looking around.

It's pretty plain, with off-white walls and a few colorful paintings. There's a bed, a closet, a dresser, and an adjoining bathroom. She doesn't mind the plainness, though; she's more comfortable here than in the rest of his extravagant mansion.

She sets her bags on the floor and looks at Austin, finally overcoming her initial shock at seeing him in person. "Sorry about earlier," she says sheepishly.

"Don't mention it," the blond says with a shrug. "Happens all the time." She detects something off in his voice, but she can't place it. "Anyway, I'll show you around."

He leads her out of the room and gives her a tour of the house, pointing out the many different rooms. She follows him silently, looking around the mansion and feeling slightly overwhelmed again.

When the tour is finally over, she can't help but blurt out the question that's been nagging at her mind since she first walked in. "How do you _live_ here?"

He looks over at her. "What do you mean?"

"This place is huge. And everything you own is super expensive. How do you live here in such a massive space all by yourself?"

"Oh." He shrugs. "You get used to it. And my best friend pretty much lives here with me. He sleeps here more than he does at home."

"I mean… _still_."

He changes the subject. "You must be hungry after your flight. You're from Florida, right?"

"Miami," she replies with a nod.

"Right. Well, beach bum, you like seafood?"

She smiles. "I do."

"Awesome," he says, smiling back. "I had my chef make us a bunch of seafood for dinner."

"You have a private chef?"

"I mean, technically, yeah. But he lives kinda far away so I only have him come over on special occasions. Believe it or not, we celebs actually _can_ do things for ourselves."

She puts her hands up in surrender. "I believe it."

He smiles at her and opens his massive fridge, pulling out platters of food and placing them on the table. She watches with wide eyes.

"All this is for us?"

"Mmhm."

"Wow, um…thank you."

"No problem."

They sit down and start eating, and after taking a few bites, Austin speaks up. "So, what made you wanna enter the contest?"

She's a bit taken aback by the question. "Same reason as everyone else, I guess. I want a career in music, and who better to help me achieve that than one of the most successful musicians in the world?"

"Most people wanted to win for the fame and to meet me."

"Well, that's just an added bonus," she says with a smile.

"Is it?"

She tilts her head, but he doesn't elaborate. In fact, he's pretty quiet for the rest of their meal, seemingly lost in his own thoughts as he stares down at his food.

After they finish eating and clean up, Austin tells her a quick goodnight and disappears upstairs, leaving her wondering what she did wrong at dinner.

With that question in mind, she makes her way to her room (thankfully only getting lost a few times) and gets ready for bed. She knows it's pretty early, but it's been one of the longest days of her life, and she passes out the second her head hits the pillow.

* * *

The next morning is a blur of stylists and makeup artists and gourmet breakfast foods and Austin trying to hammer enough information in her mind to drive her insane. So by the time lunch rolls around, she's ready to go to sleep already.

"You okay?" Austin asks, waving a hand in front of her face.

She blinks twice and shakes her head, coming out of her tired daze. When she looks at him, she notices a knowing smile on his face. "I'm fine," she says. "Is this what it's like every morning for you?"

"More or less," the blond replies. "But you get used to it."

"That was exhausting," she says.

"I can tell. But don't go falling asleep on me now, because we have lots of press to do today."

"Press?"

"Yeah. This contest has been all over the media for the past three months. And now that we have a winner" – he gestures to her – "every media outlet you can think of is gonna be begging for photos and interviews and any kind of information on you they can get."

"Oh," she says lamely, feeling overwhelmed already.

"But don't worry too much. I'll be right next to you the whole time, so if you're ever struggling just look over at me and I'll let you catch your breath."

"Thanks," she says, her heartrate returning to normal.

"No problem. They're gonna love you."

"How do you know?"

He shrugs. "You're young, cute, friendly, talented…it's like the perfect recipe for their cover stories."

She tries not to blush at his compliments, but she feels the heat rising to her cheeks anyway. If he notices, however, he doesn't say anything.

"Anyway, when we're done studio hopping it'll probably be dinnertime, so we'll go out to eat and then come back here."

She nods, looking forward to collapsing in her warm bed already. But she still has a question that's been burning in her mind ever since she found out she'd be staying with him for the month.

"What does Kira think about all this?" she blurts.

He tilts his head, a confused quirk that his fans go nuts over. "What?"

"Your girlfriend. Isn't she…I dunno…iffy about you having some random girl stay at your house for a month? I mean, I'm not into you like that and I'm not gonna try anything, but a lot of the people who entered the contest are and what if – "

"She's fine," he interrupts her with a smile.

She blushes, realizing how badly she was rambling. But he doesn't seem to mind, as he still has that smile on his face.

"Okay," she says.

"You done eating?"

She nods, standing up from the table and immediately wobbling in the heels she's wearing. Austin stands up and grabs her arm gently to steady her.

"You'll get used to those too," he assures her, causing her to blush yet again.

"How do you know?"

He grins. "You get used to everything in this lifestyle eventually. Including wardrobes almost impossible to function in."

She gives him a small smile and he guides her out of the house, his hand on her back. She can't help but wonder what certain girls would give to be in her position right now.

They climb into the limo waiting outside and start the long drive to their first stop.

"So, tell me about yourself," Austin says, leaning back in his seat.

"Well," she starts, "I'm nineteen – "

"I know you're nineteen and you love music and you're from Miami. I'm talking about the fun stuff."

"Like what?"

"Like your favorite food, or the weirdest dream you've ever had."

She smiles. "I love pickles. Those are probably my favorite food."

"Ooh, what kind?"

"All of 'em."

He nods in respect. "That's like me with pancakes."

She smiles. "And the weirdest dream I've ever had…" She trails off in thought, and then snaps her fingers. "Oh, when I was fifteen, I had this dream that I was auditioning to get into MUNY, but the piano I was playing turned into this monster that was trying to eat me, but no one else could see it but me."

"That's terrifying."

"I woke up with crippling stage fright. I didn't get over it until I was seventeen."

"Wow. But it's good you got over it though. You're really talented."

She smiles. That's the second time he's mentioned her talent within fifteen minutes. But she isn't complaining.

"So, you wanted to go to MUNY?"

She nods. "I didn't get in."

" _What_?"

She laughs at how appalled he looks. "I can't play any instruments other than the piano."

"So they didn't let you in?"

She shakes her head, still chuckling at the look on his face. "But hey, if I had gone to MUNY I might not have even entered this contest."

"That's true. So I guess it was a good thing."

"Mmhm. Now _you_ have to tell me about _your_ self."

"My favorite food is pancakes," he says with a grin, "which you probably either already know because it's basic knowledge about me, or you just figured out because if what I said earlier. And _my_ weirdest dream was that an alien hatched an egg in my stomach and I went through an entire nine months of pregnancy and then gave birth to an alien-human mutation."

"Wow, that's...weird…"

He laughs at the expression on her face. "I was eleven."

She laughs too. "Still."

They continue talking until they arrive at the first studio. When she looks out the window, all she sees are people struggling with security guards, trying to get pictures with their phones or cameras.

Austin looks at her. "You ready to take your first step into the spotlight?"

She swallows nervously. "Um – "

"Just smile and stay close to me."

She's about to grab his arm and beg for more time because she really isn't ready at all, but he's already opened the door and stepped out into the small path formed by two walls of security guards. So she has no choice but to follow him, deafened by the tidal wave of shouts crashing over her.

He reaches back and pulls her up next to him, wrapping an arm around her while he smiles and waves at his fans with the other. She tries her best to smile too, but she's never been more terrified.

As soon as they get inside and the doors close to block out the screaming, she takes a breath. She isn't sure whether it's her trembling body or the look of terror that must be in her eyes, but something must tip Austin off to the fact that she really isn't okay after those agonizingly long forty-five seconds.

He guides her over to a bench in the lobby of the studio and helps her sit down, taking a seat next to her and rubbing her back soothingly.

"It can be a little overwhelming," he says, his smooth, low voice calming her down a little more. "It'll get easier, though. Promise."

She looks over at him, trying to swallow her fear. "It's like that all the time?"

"Part of the job."

"That was one of the most terrifying experiences I've ever had."

"I can tell. But it gets better with time and repetition. You did great."

"We're gonna have to do it again?"

He nods, pressing his lips into a line. "You'll be okay."

She runs a shaky hand through her hair and takes a deep breath. "That isn't what I expected fame to feel like."

"Never is. You ready for the interview?"

"I – I guess."

He gives her a small smile, standing up and offering his hand. "Just be yourself. The world's gonna love you."

She manages a smile too and takes his hand, following him to the first studio in the massive building. He explains that this will be for a popular media outlet's YouTube channel, just like most of the other interviews. But a few today will be featured on television, although she tries not to think about those.

"Hi!" the brunette interviewer greets when they walk in the studio. "I'm Stephanie! It's so great to finally meet you!"

She shakes both of their hands, and Ally wonders how her face isn't broken from that massive smile she has plastered on. But Ally smiles back at her politely.

"It's nice to meet you too," she says as she and Austin follow her to the couches on the set. "I'm Ally – "

"I know who both of you are," Stephanie laughs, sitting down in her chair.

Ally looks at Austin, who already took a seat on the couch. She sits next to him.

Before she can even compose herself, the cameraman is yelling action and the interview is starting.

"Hi, everyone! I'm Stephanie Silver and you're watching First Look! I'm here today with everyone's favorite heartthrob, Austin Moon, and his new mentee, Ally Dawson!" Stephanie announces cheerily, gesturing to the two of them.

Ally glances at Austin, mimicking his smile and casual wave at the camera.

"For those of you who don't know, Austin just conducted the first ever Austin Moon Talent Search, where he partnered with Starr Records to find the next big thing. And that next big thing, they've decided, is the lovely brunette sitting to my right." Stephanie makes another gesture to Ally, and she smiles more. "So, Austin, tell me about the talent search, and walk me through the process."

Austin nods, sitting up more in his seat. "I actually came up with the idea about a year ago. A friend of mine said something about how many talented people there are in the world who will probably never get recognized for it. So it got me thinking, and I went to Jimmy, the owner of my label, about a month later with the talent search idea, and he loved it. We planned it all out and did a bunch of promotion for it, and before we knew it we were getting flooded with thousands of videos every day."

"How did you sort through it all?" Stephanie asks.

"The videos were filtered through a few judges in order to try to narrow it down a bit, but by the time they got to me and Jimmy there were still _tons_ to watch. I think it took us two weeks after submissions were closed to watch all of them. Ally here was actually one of the last ones, but as soon as her ninety seconds were over, I was like, 'That's her. That's our girl.'"

Ally smiles, trying to hide the blush rising to her cheeks. If Austin and Stephanie notice it, they don't say anything.

"So, of course, we finished watching all the videos," Austin continues, "but Ally's still stuck out more than the rest. Jimmy completely agreed with me. So he had one of his people type up the congratulations letter, we sent it out, and here she is." He looks over at her with a smile, draping his arm over the back of the couch behind her.

"So now that she's here, what's gonna happen? You're going to mentor her?"

Austin nods. "Show her the ropes, give her advice, teach her everything I know. We'll also write some songs, and she'll definitely be in the recording booth a little bit. And then at the end, she'll hopefully end up with a record deal."

"Oooh, how does that sound?" Stephanie asks, focusing her attention on Ally.

Ally laughs nervously, a little shocked by the news of how this month could end up. "Kinda terrifying. Amazing, but terrifying."

Stephanie and Austin laugh good-naturedly, and she laughs with them (but that's mainly because she doesn't really know what else to do).

"Amazing but terrifying," Stephanie echoes with a nod. "I like it. But you're excited, right?"

Ally nods too, smiling. " _So_ excited. I honestly still can't believe all of this is real."

"So, can you walk me through what it was like opening that letter?"

Ally chuckles. "I didn't expect to win. Like, at all. So when I first opened it, I didn't really believe it. It didn't, like, register until I read it about seven hundred times. I literally stood there with it in my hand, like" – she pauses and recreates what her jaw-slackened face must've looked like as she read the letter – "for like an _hour_ before I was finally like, 'Holy crap, I just _won_.' So then I called my parents and my best friend, and I screamed a lot, and then I started packing because I only had three days to pack for a month here in LA. I was super overwhelmed. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if I realize like a week from now that I forgot something."

Stephanie laughs again. "Can I just say that you are one of the most charming people I've ever interviewed?"

Ally laughs a bit in surprise. "Thank you."

"Anyway, what was it like meeting Austin?" she asks.

Ally looks over at Austin, giggling, before looking at Stephanie again. "Okay, well, let me just start off by saying that I had just gotten off a six-hour plane ride, so I felt like and probably looked like legit _trash_. And I was super nervous because I was meeting _Austin Moon_ , so the whole time I was walking up to his house I was trying not to pass out. So I ring the doorbell, expecting an assistant or butler or whatever like you see in the movies, but then it's _him_ standing there. I think I like took a couple steps back when I saw him." She looks over at Austin for confirmation and he nods, grinning.

"Her face went _white_. I was kinda worried about her for a second there."

Stephanie chuckles, and Ally smiles. "You have to understand!" she says defensively. "I've never met anyone famous _in my life_! Like, I'm from Miami, but not where all the celebrities go! And I've always been a fan of Austin's, so I was like, 'What do I even _do_?' I was in so much shock, I just kinda said, 'Uh…hi…' and it was the lamest thing _ever_. And then I started to introduce myself because I literally _forgot_ that he was the one who ran the talent search so he knew who I was and was expecting me. But he was like, 'Yeah, I know,' and it was fine, but, like…it was probably one of the most embarrassing moments of my life."

"It wasn't that bad," Austin promises. "I've seen way worse."

"You two seem like two peas in a pod now," Stephanie notes.

"Do we?" Ally asks, looking over at Austin.

"For meeting each other only recently, that is," she says.

"She actually just got here yesterday," Austin says.

"And you're already putting her through an interview?" Stephanie jokes.

Austin laughs, looking over at Ally. "She's fine."

"Well, for only your second day in LA, I'd say you were a pro," Stephanie says to Ally.

She grins. "Thanks."

"So, Ally, I have to ask: is Austin this cute all the time, or only for the fans?" Stephanie asks.

Austin grins, looking at Ally. "All the time," he says.

"I asked Ally," Stephanie jokes.

"Well, okay, here's the thing," Ally says, "I actually never really had, like, a celebrity crush on him."

Austin gasps in mock offense. "That's it, get out. We're finding a new girl."

Ally giggles. "I'm sorry."

The blond smiles, looking at Stephanie again.

"Anyway," Ally says, "I don't know, I was always more into his music and his journey more than his looks. But sure, he's cute all the time, to answer your question."

Stephanie chuckles. "I bet all his fans are gonna try to change your mind now."

"No, no, she's entitled to her opinion," Austin says. He looks into the camera. "Don't attack her please. She's allowed to be wrong."

Ally rolls her eyes, a smile still on her face.

"Well, I wish we had more time, but unfortunately we're out of it," Stephanie says with an exaggerated frown. But then she smiles again. "But I'm sure I'll have you two back in here very soon."

Ally nods, smiling, and she sees Austin doing the same out of her peripheral.

Stephanie looks at the camera again, smiling. "If you thought Ally was as charming and adorable as I did, make sure to stay tuned for more interviews in the future. And I'd like to give one last thanks to Austin and Ally for coming out here."

Austin and Ally wave to the camera again.

"One more time, I'm Stephanie Silver, and thank you for watching First Look."

"We're out!" the cameraman exclaims.

Ally lets out a breath of relief that she didn't know she was holding, looking over at Austin.

"You did great!" he exclaims, a grin still on his face.

"You really did," Stephanie agrees. "Was that really your first interview?"

Ally nods, blushing slightly. "Yeah."

"Well, you're truly a natural at it. And you're so _charming_! The world is gonna love you. I'm already a fan, and I haven't even heard you sing yet."

Ally laughs. "Thank you," she says. "All these compliments are making me blush."

"You'll get used to it, I'm sure," Stephanie says. "It was so nice to meet you!"

"You too!" Ally replies.

She and Austin say goodbye and walk out of the studio. As soon as the door closes, Austin turns to her.

"First interview: check."

"I really did okay?" she asks him.

He nods, smiling at her. "You really did. I'm proud of you."

She smiles, sighing again in relief. "Thanks. I didn't realize how nervous I was until it was over. But that wasn't so bad."

He nods again in agreement. "Interviews are fun. They just tend to get pretty repetitive. You'll probably be telling your story of the day you got the letter and meeting me yesterday at every interview."

"Great. Reliving the humiliation."

"I thought it was cute how surprised you were!" Austin assures her.

"Oh, I'm sure," she says.

They continue on with the interviews, and Ally realizes just how right Austin was when he said they'd get repetitive. She felt like she was essentially doing the same interview over and over again, just with different people and personalities asking her the questions. It got kind of tedious, especially towards the end, but Austin seemed to understand her struggle and kept things interesting with snarky comments and jokes.

When they finally get home, Ally takes off her heels and collapses on the big couch in the living room.

"That was _exhausting_ ," she says.

Austin chuckles. "Part of the glitz and glamour of being famous."

"I'm not famous."

"You will be when those interviews are released. You're probably already gaining a following. Or, at least, people are probably already curious about you."

She decides not to mention how much her phone has been blowing up today with notifications of new followers on her social media.

"I'm hungry," she announces, changing the subject.

"Wanna order a pizza?" the blond suggests, already pulling his phone out of his pocket.

She nods, her stomach rumbling.

"What do you like?" he asks.

"Pepperoni," she says. "I'm plain."

"Hey, you can't go wrong with good old pepperoni pizza," he says, dialing the pizza place and holding the phone to his ear. "Hey, can I get a large pepperoni…" She listens as his voice trails off when he walks down the hall.

When she finally works up the energy, she stands up and walks upstairs to her room. She takes a short – but very relaxing – shower and puts on a pair of pajama pants and a tank top, brushing out her wet hair and washing off the remainder of her makeup.

By the time she gets back downstairs, there's a pizza box on the counter and she can see Austin's mop of hair on the couch as he focuses on a hockey game on TV.

She grabs the paper plate he left out for her and two pieces of pizza before making her way over to sit next to him. The first thing she notices is that he's wearing a pair of sweatpants…and no shirt. She tries really hard not to focus on that.

But he _was_ voted 'Hottest Guy Under 25' every month for two years straight and counting for a reason.

"There you are," he says, his mouth full of pizza. She thanks her lucky stars that he's so invested in the hockey game that he doesn't notice her futile attempts to focus on anything else except his toned body. "I was wondering where you went."

"I wanted to get all that makeup and hairspray off me. And to get out of that dress."

"I kinda figured," he replies.

She starts eating her pizza, and they get to talking more about themselves to get to know each other. She learns more about him than she thought she'd ever know (but it's probably nothing compared to what his superfans know about him). Still, she learns that his favorite country to visit is Italy because of all the artwork, and that his favorite part of his work is performing because of the _awesome_ feeling he gets when he's on stage, and that he grew up in Miami but convinced his family to move out to LA when he was fifteen so he could follow his dream of becoming a musician, and about a million other things she didn't know before. She's glad she isn't one of the fans who knows everything about him, because learning about him _from_ him is a lot more fun than learning about him online. And he seems to enjoy it, too, from the way he seems so eager to tell her everything about himself he can think of. She suspects he doesn't get to talk to many people who haven't done extensive research on him, so this must be a bit of a relief.

She tells him about herself too, of course. She tells him that a career in music has been her dream since long before she can remember, and that when she developed her stage fright she was devastated that she might never get to reach that dream, and that she wants to travel the world someday, and that sometimes when she's lonely she talks to an imaginary friend. He smiles and listens to her as she rambles on about herself, asking her questions to keep the conversation going and conveniently only doing so when there's pizza in his mouth.

"Is it weird that we only met yesterday but I already feel like we're best friends?" she asks, starting on her fourth slice of pizza.

"Nothing brings two people together like long press days," he says, tapping the edge of his pizza against hers in a sort of 'cheers' gesture. "I think we make great best friends, mentee." He takes a bite of his pizza.

"I agree," she says with a nod, following suit.

"I think we should document this monumental development," he says, wiping his hands on a napkin.

She swallows her food and takes another bite, wondering what he could mean by that as he pulls out his phone and trains the camera on her. "Say, 'Cheese and pepperoni!'" he exclaims.

She holds up her pizza and scrunches up her face in what she hopes is a cute replacement for a smile with food in her mouth.

"Perfect," he says, showing her the picture. "Can I tweet it?"

She nods, swallowing again. "Sure."

"Pizza…with…my…little…mentee…to…celebrate…her…first…press day!" he drawls slowly, speaking each word as he types it on his phone. "And tagging you…and done. Awesome."

Her phone immediately lights up with the notification that he tagged her in the post, and he smiles proudly. She rolls her eyes at him, smiling too.

"Do you treat all of your tweets as your greatest accomplishment?"

"Yes. Yes I do."

* * *

She'll admit it: she's bored. But it's not his fault. One can only take so much sitting around outside a recording booth and hearing nothing but silence while everyone else in the room is wearing headphones to listen to the songs Austin is recording.

Still, it'd be nice if she had something to do other than try to read Austin's lips.

She's _grateful_ for this experience, of course. At the beginning, Austin showed her the ropes and explained how everything works when recording a song, and she definitely learned a lot. And she also kind of enjoys seeing how _into_ the music he is as he sings. She just wishes she could hear him.

Her thoughts end up wandering off to her past week since she got to LA. After the chaotic first day, she and Austin had equally as chaotic second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and now seventh days. Between songwriting sessions and interviews and voice lessons and piano lessons and whatever else they've been up to, she's hardly even had time to _breathe_ , much less do anything else.

Her family and friends back home must be wondering if she's even _alive_.

Then again, she's all over the internet.

But it hasn't been _all_ bad. She and Austin have grown pretty close over the past week – closer than she thought would be possible in such a short amount of time, and especially with a world-famous celebrity. Apparently drowning in packed schedules brings people together. And so do long limo rides with nothing to do but talk to each other.

"All right, I think we're done for the day," one of the producers says, bringing her out of her thoughts.

She looks up to see Austin give them a thumbs-up from inside the recording booth, a grin on his face. He takes off his headphones and hangs them on the mic stand before walking out of the booth.

"It sounds great," the same producer tells him.

He grins. "I'm glad. We're, like, halfway done now, aren't we?"

"Mmhm. Your fourth album."

"Crazy," Austin says, shaking his head. "Well, I'll see you guys next week."

He waves to them and looks over at Ally, who stands up immediately. They walk out together and she lets out a sigh of relief.

"You okay?" he asks.

"I just sat in there for _three hours_ in complete silence."

"You could've asked for some headphones, Ally." He looks over at her.

She opens her mouth, decides against the comment she was going to make, and closes her mouth again. Austin laughs.

"So, what now?" she asks, trying to shut him up.

"I have a live stream scheduled in an hour," he says. "But I'm just doing it on my laptop at home, so it's pretty chill."

"That's good," she says. "I can rest."

"You're gonna be in it with me."

She looks at him. "I don't think I can – "

"Ally, come on. You've already done like twenty interviews, and you've only been here a week."

"Talking to an interviewer is _way_ different than talking to a computer screen," she says.

"You'll be talking to me!" he reminds her.

She exhales. "Fine. But please don't make me sing."

"You're gonna have to eventually," he says.

"I know. But not right now."

"Fine."

They get in the car that's waiting for them out in the back of the studio and start their drive back to Austin's house.

"What're we doing tomorrow?" Ally asks.

"Tomorrow, I am teaching you everything you need to know about red carpets, and that's gonna be an all-day thing," he tells her.

"What do you mean?"

"It's a surprise," he says with a smile.

She rolls her eyes. "You always do that smile when you're trying to get away with something."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

She scrunches her face at him. "Cute. But your cute doesn't work on me, you know that."

"It works on you. I know it does."

"Nope. Not at all."

"You're a liar. If my cute didn't work on you, we wouldn't have watched 'The Bachelorette' while we were eating dinner on Monday."

"I cannot _believe_ you like that show," Ally says, rolling her eyes again.

"It gives me hope for true love!" he exclaims defensively, acting overdramatic.

"Most of the couples break up! And what about Kira?!"

Austin folds his arms over his chest. "I don't need this right now."

"Oh my – "

"You're trying to crush my dreams."

"I'm so sorry for telling you the truth," she deadpans.

"I don't know if I can forgive you, Ally. I really don't."

"I'm gonna kick you."

"Do it. It'll hurt less than you crushing my dreams."

Ally stares at him and kicks him in the shin. He looks over at her and frowns.

"I can't believe you just kicked me," he says. "Do you _know_ who I _am_?"

"Yeah," she replies. "You're Austin Moon, drama queen of the century."

"Oh, that's it, Dawson. This is _war_ , now."

He unbuckles his seatbelt and leans towards her, trying to karate chop her shoulder. She grins and dodges him, unbuckling her seatbelt as well. He narrows his eyes at her and tries again, but she dodges him a second time. He tries a third time, and she lets him land a light karate chop on her arm, just to end whatever game they've started.

"Ha," he says to her, buckling up his seatbelt again.

"You got me." She rolls her eyes, doing the same.

When they get home, he starts setting up the live stream and she is sent on a mission to grab one of his guitars from the music room. She picks the acoustic already sitting on a stand in the room and carries it back downstairs to the living room, where she sees that Austin has already started the live stream.

" – and it's been really fun getting to, like, show her the ropes. It's cool because I went through this whole journey for myself not too long ago, so I know the kinds of things that I wish I would've known in advance and I can give her advice or tips about what to expect or how to handle certain situations."

He must hear her walking over, because he turns his head and smiles at her. "Speaking of," he says, looking at the camera, "look who's here!"

He turns his laptop to point the camera at her, and she waves with the hand that isn't holding his guitar, unsure of what else to do.

"Just set that against the couch," he tells her, turning the camera back to him.

She does as he says and then sits next to him, and he adjusts the laptop so they can both be seen on camera.

"Everyone say hi to Ally," Austin says. "Ally, say hi to everyone."

She smiles. "Hi, everyone."

"We were just talking about you," the blond tells her. "I was saying how much fun it is to have you here."

"You just like pretending you know everything," she says teasingly, narrowing her eyes at him.

"But I _do_ know everything."

She rolls her eyes. "He definitely does _not_ know everything," she says, looking at what she thinks is the camera.

"I definitely do," he says. "Ally, everyone in the comments is telling us to stop arguing."

She knits her eyebrows, looking at the screen. "Where?" she asks.

He points to the comments automatically scrolling up the screen, so fast she can hardly read them. "Oh."

"Bickering is part of our charm," Austin says. "Anyway, ask us some questions!"

"How can you read these comments?" she asks him. "They're making me dizzy."

"Then I'll read them. You just talk."

"Okay…well, hi guys," Ally says.

"Ooh, here's a good question. They wanna know when they're gonna hear some of your music." He looks at her.

"You tell me," she says, looking at him too.

"Well, I'm pretty sure someone released the audition tape she sent in for the contest, so that's a start. And I think we're gonna get her in the studio in the next week or so. But you'll probably be doing some singing on talk shows and radio shows and stuff before we release anything official," he says, finishing by talking to her personally.

"Oh. Well, there's your answer," she says, looking at the camera again.

"I wanted her to sing here, but she's a little nervous."

"I'm not _nervous_ – "

"Yes you are!" Austin interrupts. "But either way, you'll be hearing her sooner rather than later," he says, looking at the camera.

"Maybe I'll sing something, like, at the end."

Austin grins at her before continuing to read the comments. "'Is it true that she's living with you?'" he reads. "Yep. I can't remember if we mentioned it in any interviews or not, but Ally is staying with me while she's here in LA. It's been a party."

She nods, smiling. "I was petrified when I found out the day I got here," she admits. "But it's cool."

"'Are you two dating?'" he reads.

She freezes, her eyes wide. " _What_?" she squeaks, looking over at him.

"They wanna know if we're dating," he tells her, amusement written all over his features.

"Um…no…?" she says, looking at the laptop again.

"Yeah, we're not dating," he says. "I'm still with Kira Starr, and we are very happy. But Ally and I are like best friends." He looks at her, smiling. "Yeah?"

She nods, her heartrate returning to normal. "Yeah. Besties."

He wraps his arm around her in a tight side-hug. "It's funny, actually. It was, like, her second night here and she was like, 'I feel like we're already best friends, is that weird?' and I was like, 'I was literally _just_ thinking that.' We're pretty much, like, platonic soulmates. Like, if you could do something like getting married to someone as your best friend, I'm pretty sure that would be us."

She laughs. "Can we please make that a thing?" she asks, turning to face him.

"We should write a movie about it. You think they're falling in romantic love but it's actually just platonic and they create a whole new ceremony just to stay best friends forever."

"I'm down. Maybe if the music thing doesn't work out, we could fall back on screenwriting."

"Let's do it," he agrees, holding up his hand.

She high-fives him, grinning.

The rest of the live stream goes on pretty much the same way, with him reading questions and the two of them answering. He sings a song or two, playing his guitar, and she gets to just sit back and listen, and she loves it.

But then he starts begging _her_ to sing. And she tries to resist, but she sees comment after comment begging her to sing, too. How is she supposed to say no to fans that she technically doesn't even have yet?

"What song do I even sing?" she asks, her cheeks turning pink as she gives in.

Austin grins. "Anything! I can play anything."

"Well…I don't know. You pick a song."

Austin rolls his eyes. "Come _on_ , Ally. Pick a song you like and go with it!"

She sighs. "Fine." Then, she narrows her eyes at him. "'Steal Your Heart.' Austin Moon. You know that one?"

He smirks. "Sure. But I don't like the guy who sings it. Heard he's a mess."

"I heard he is, too."

"Alright, do your thang," he says.

He starts playing the intro on the guitar and she takes a deep breath, trying to pretend that this is just one of their voice lessons and that there aren't thousands of people watching right now.

She can hear her own nerves in her voice when she starts singing, so she closes her eyes and does her best to breathe. Luckily, she's feeling a little more confident by the time she sings the chorus, so her voice sounds a lot stronger. She doesn't want to seem conceited, but she thinks she sounds better and better as the song goes on.

As soon as the song is over, Austin starts clapping. She opens her eyes and looks over at him, and the grin on his face seems to light up the room.

"That was so good!" he exclaims, leaning his guitar against the couch again and giving her a hug.

She smiles a bit, hugging him back. "Thanks, Austin."

"Wasn't it good?" he asks, pulling away from her and looking at the camera.

But she can already see a few of the comments as they quickly scroll up the screen, and the ones she catches are very positive.

"They love you!" he says. "I told you!"

"Yeah, okay," she says. "Thanks, everyone."

"We actually have to go now, so thank you all for watching!" Austin exclaims, smiling at the camera.

Ally nods, smiling too. "Thanks for putting up with our bickering and platonic married couple-ness. And for liking my singing, because that's pretty cool."

Austin chuckles. "See you guys soon! Austin and Ally, out!"

He grins and ends the live stream. Then he turns to face her.

"What?" she asks, knitting her eyebrows together.

"Dude, that was _awesome_ ," he says. "I mean, I obviously knew you could sing, but…that was way different than anything I've heard you sing before. You were shy in your video. And whenever we're doing voice. But that was _amazing_."

"You just liked it so much because it was your song," she says, rolling her eyes.

"Maybe. But either way, I'm glad you did that. And I'm glad you're my little mentee."

He taps his index finger on her nose and stands up from the couch, stretching his stiff muscles.

"I told you I don't like it when you do that."

"Sorry," he says unapologetically.

"Yeah, yeah. So what now?"

He looks down at her. "I'm going out to dinner with Kira. Which means you have the house to yourself."

"Ooh, fun."

"Mmhm. I gotta go change and then I'm outta here. Don't throw any wild parties while I'm gone."

"What about just a normal party?" she asks.

He pretends to think about it. "I'll allow it," he decides, a small smile playing on his lips. He winks at her and then walks upstairs.

She sighs, closing her eyes and shaking her head.

* * *

"Austin, will you _please_ tell me why I have to go through all this if we're not even leaving the house today?" she whines as four stylists primp and pamper her. She yelps as the hair stylist tugs on her hair too hard. One woman is giving her a manicure while the other gives her a pedicure, and the fourth stylist is busy trying to decide on accessories to go with the elegant purple gown she has to wear for whatever it is they're doing.

"I told you, it's a _surprise_ ," Austin says as his own stylists work on him. "It'll be fun, though. Promise."

She sighs.

"Hey, you want this, don't you? All this comes with the job."

"I know that," she says. "I do want it. It'll just take a little getting used to. If I even make it in the music business."

"Which you will."

"And it'll be nice knowing _why_ I have to get all done up like this."

"All in good time, Ally. All in good time."

It takes another hour and a half for them to finish getting ready for whatever-it-is. But she'll admit that the stylists know what they're doing.

"All right _m'lady_ ," Austin says dramatically, adjusting the tie he's wearing with his classy black suit. "Are you ready to see what the surprise is?" He holds out his hand.

"Yes," she says as she takes his hand. "Finally."

He smiles at her and loops her arm through his before guiding her to the back door of the house. He's kept the curtains closed all day, so she knows that whatever the surprise is, is back there. He opens the door, and what she sees is nowhere near anything she expected.

Austin's huge back yard includes a pretty big expanse of grass, stretching all the way from the wall separating his yard from that of his neighbor's and the wall of his house. Along the wall of his house stretches a what looks like a massive roll of red construction paper, with small pieces of black duct tape at regular intervals along the way.

Standing outside holding cameras are Austin's friend Dez and three other people Ally doesn't recognize. They all wave at her simultaneously, which kind of creeps her out.

"What is all this?" she asks.

"A pretend red carpet!" Austin exclaims excitedly. "I'm gonna teach you how to rock it."

"Oh. It can't be _that_ hard, right? I mean, you just step on the black tape and pose."

"Sure. It _sounds_ easy. But when you've got ten photographers screaming your name and trying to get you to look at them, it can be overwhelming," he says.

"Right."

"But this is mainly just to get you used to the carpet and to see what works best for you when you're on it. So take it away, mentee."

Austin gestures to the carpet, and Ally shrugs and starts walking. She stops at the first piece of tape and looks at the 'photographers,' smiling and putting a hand on her hip.

Immediately, they start yelling her name and trying to get her attention, just like Austin said. And at first she _is_ a little overwhelmed, but she just takes a deep breath and looks at each other them for a couple seconds.

After she looks at everyone, she keeps walking.

"Most of the time you'll kinda have your manager or publicist or security guiding you along, but if not, that was a pretty good amount of time to stay," Austin tells her before she stops again.

They keep doing this – her stopping for the photos and trying different poses with him giving her pointers in between – all the way down the makeshift carpet.

"That was good," he says when she gets to the end. "I thought we'd have to make you go down again, but you actually did really well."

"Great, so I can get out of this dress?"

"Not quite," Austin says with a smile. "You have to practice with a date."

"I was wondering why you got dressed up too," she says.

He holds out his arm, and she loops her own arm through his.

"So normally you and your date would walk all cutesy down the carpet like so," he explains, gesturing to their arms. "And it's basically the same thing, just…together."

They stop at the first piece of black tape, and their trusty faux photographers start fighting for their attention. He wraps an arm around her waist, and she awkwardly rests her hand on his back, smiling at the cameras.

When they move on, he doesn't criticize her for it, so she figures there must've been nothing wrong.

They make their way down the carpet just like before, trying out different poses to see what Ally is most comfortable with.

When they're finally done, Austin lets Ally go upstairs and shower and change since they don't have anything else planned today. So she gratefully does so, and when she comes back downstairs in her pajamas she sees that he's taken the liberty to shower and change as well.

"We have to look at the pictures now," he says.

"All of them?"

"Nah, just seeing what looks best for you on the carpet."

"Oh. Where'd everyone go?"

"I kicked them out."

"Ah."

She sits down next to him on the couch, and he hooks one of the cameras up to his laptop and starts clicking through the pictures.

He makes comments about what does or doesn't look good, but she honestly can't tell much of a difference. She isn't the conceited type, but she thinks she looks pretty good in all the pictures, if she's being honest. She takes his advice to heart, though, because he knows better than she does.

Then they eat dinner, and they talk about their plans for tomorrow.

"Thanks for this," she says when they're done eating and back to sitting on the couch. "For wanting me to be successful and stuff."

"Only the best for my little mentee," he says, wrapping an arm around her and squeezing her shoulder gently.

She smiles slightly, resting her head on his shoulder for a few seconds to return his affectionate gesture.

"Can I ask you something?" she asks, sitting up again and looking at him.

"That's what I'm here for," he replies.

"Do you… _like_ being famous?"

He tilts his head. "What do you mean?"

"I don't really know," she admits. "It's just…whenever anything about fame comes up, like interviews or the carpet thing today, you just seem…I dunno… _irritated_ by it all."

He shrugs. "It's not easy constantly being in the spotlight. But don't let that discourage you from trying to make it in music."

"I won't," she says. "Thanks for being honest."

"Anytime."

They go to bed soon after, but she can only toss and turn for so long without getting up and trying to do something productive. So that's how she finds herself sitting at the piano in the music room with no lights on at two in the morning trying to write a song.

She finds herself writing about him. It's not a love song, like those she usually writes, but it is a song _about_ loving someone and supporting them, just maybe not necessarily romantically. And she's actually pretty proud of it – or at least, she's proud of what she has so far.

She's just turned off her phone flashlight after writing down a few lyrics when she hears the door open and close. She hears footsteps, and then she feels someone sit down next to her on the piano bench, their muscular arm pressed up against hers.

Considering there's only one other person in this house with her, she knows it has to be Austin.

"What're you doing up?" she asks him quietly, as if speaking too loud will shatter the very air surrounding them.

He shrugs. "Can't sleep," he replies, copying her tone.

"How come?"

"Just thinking. You?"

"Same."

"I usually write songs when I can't sleep."

"So do I."

"Well…let's see what you've got so far."

She turns on her flashlight again and shows him the page in her notebook she's been writing on. She looks over at him as he reads the music and the lyrics.

The dim light casts strange shadows on his face, but either way she can tell just how _exhausted_ he is. And she knows it isn't just because it's two a.m. It's because he doesn't get a break; it's because he's always trying to please his fans and his label and everyone else around him; it's because the fame he's gained for himself is weighing down on his shoulders and stressing him out; and it's probably partly because he's worrying about making everything perfect for her so she can have the best shot at living her dream.

A part of her heart breaks for him, wishing that he could just _rest_. Another part of her heart swells with gratitude for everything he's doing for her. And another part – albeit a tiny part – is thinking that maybe she _does_ have a tiny little celebrity crush on him.

But the second _that_ part of her heart starts speaking up, she shuts it down with a firm, _I don't like him_. And surprisingly, the tiny part of her heart shuts up.

"It's a good song," he says, his exhaustion evident in his voice. "You should…" He yawns. "You should slow…slow it down a little. Make it more…more…mea-meaningful," he stutters.

"Austin, go to bed," she says with an amused smile.

"Can't sleep," he speaks through another yawn.

"Try again," she tells him.

"Mmm…fine," he decides.

In the dim light of the flashlight she still hasn't turned off, she can see that his eyes are closed.

"But I wanna hear whatever you have in the morning."

"Deal," she chuckles.

"Night, Ally."

"Night."

He gets up and stumbles his way out of the room, already half-asleep. She smiles and shakes her head, continuing working on her song.

Eventually, she finally gets tired enough to go to sleep and heads upstairs to bed. She doesn't bother checking the time, knowing that it'll only stress her out for the morning, and instead she just crawls into her warm bed and falls asleep.

She finds that now that she's seen pretty much everything Austin does, it gets a little repetitive. For the next few days, it's either lessons or recording sessions or writing sessions or meetings or live streams or interviews or _whatever_ else he does. She can see how it would be tedious, but she figures that if all of it was about her she'd probably be a little more interested in what was going on. Still, she's enjoying how much she's learning about the reality of this career path.

She's also enjoying spending time with her new best friend Austin Moon who gives her almost more attention and affection than he gives his own girlfriend.

That thought crosses her mind just as she hears Austin walk in the house after a date with the girlfriend herself.

"Hey, Austin," she says, pulling her knees up to the couch so she can turn around and look at him as he walks in the living room. "How was your date?"

"Fine," he replies, his voice almost emotionless. "We broke up."

"Oh, that's good," she says. "Wait, _what_?!"

She looks at him, wide-eyed in confusion and surprise. He sets his keys on the counter and meets her eyes.

"We broke up," he repeats, not sounding too upset over it.

"Wha – _why_?" she asks.

He shrugs.

"But…but you two are in love!" she splutters, unable to comprehend the fact that the number one celebrity ' _it_ ' couple could actually be through.

"Guess not."

"Aren't you upset about this?!"

"Things happen, Ally. Relationships end. It's not a big deal."

"You've been together for years!"

He shrugs again. "Feelings change, I guess." He looks at her again, sternly this time. "You can't tell anyone."

She swallows. "I won't. I'm sorry, Austin."

"Don't be," he says, walking over to sit by her on the couch. "Honestly, I think we both knew it was coming. It was a mutual thing. We're still friends. It's all good."

"O – oh," she says. "Well, that's good, I guess."

"Mmhm."

He leans back against the cushion and focuses his attention on the sitcom she has playing on the TV. He drapes his arm over the back of the couch behind her, and after watching him for a few more seconds to make sure he's _really_ okay, she gives in and leans her head on his shoulder, watching the TV too. He immediately drops his arm around her shoulders and starts lightly skimming his fingertips up and down her arm.

"Austin?"

"Hmm?"

"The breakup didn't have anything to do with me living with you and stuff, did it? Because – "

"No, it didn't. You're fine, and Kira still loves you. Don't worry about it, or me, or us. Okay?"

"Fine."

They watch TV for a little while longer, and then he announces that he's going to bed, which is fine with her because she can tell he's exhausted and that this day has been more taxing than he'll admit to her.

He goes upstairs, leaving her to watch TV alone again. Her phone starts ringing suddenly, and she wonders who on earth would be calling her at midnight.

And then she sees that it's her (other) best friend Trish.

"Hey," Ally answers with a smile.

"Finally you answer me!" Trish exclaims, sounding exasperated.

"Sorry," Ally giggles. "I've been meaning to call you. I've just been busy, and then when I do have free time I call my parents and they never wanna hang up."

"I guess I can forgive you," Trish says. "So how's everything going?"

"Really good," she replies. "I'm learning so much, it's so cool."

"How's Austin?"

She giggles again. "What kind of question is that?"

"Well, I've been watching your interviews and live streams and stuff, and you two are super flirty."

"Well," Ally mocks Trish, "if you've been watching all that, then you know that we're super close best friends."

"Who live together."

"It's part of the arrangement for the contest! I'm coming home after a month."

"Yeah, yeah. So how's your music going?"

"Good. I actually got to record a song the other day, which was fun. It's gonna be released someday, don't know when though. Austin and I have been writing songs like crazy."

"Love songs?"

"Trish!" Ally whines, rolling her eyes.

"You two are cute! That's not my fault!" Trish argues with a laugh. "And come on, are you _honestly_ gonna tell me you're not the _least_ bit attracted to him?"

"It's complicated, okay?"

"How?"

"I can't like him."

"Can't is different from don't."

"I _can't_ like him," she repeats.

"So you like him."

"It's complicated!"

Trish chuckles and Ally sighs in frustration.

"You're being annoying," Ally says, pouting. "I'm going to bed."

"Okay, you do that," Trish says, her smile evident in her voice. "Just talk to me soon, okay?"

"I'll try," Ally tells her. "Bye."

She hangs up the phone and makes her way upstairs.

She's about to walk in her bedroom, when she hears Austin's voice coming from his room. Frowning, she tiptoes down the hall and peeks in the room.

" – one dance!" Austin exclaims, seeming to be talking to the stuffed dolphin he's holding in front of him.

"Austin, I can't dance!" he says in a higher-pitched voice, apparently speaking for said dolphin.

"It's easy! I'll teach you," he says in his normal voice.

"I don't know…" he says in the high-pitched tone again.

"Come _on_ , Ally!" he exclaims normally.

She freezes at the mention of her name. Is that dolphin Austin now seems to be dancing with supposed to be _her_? And if it is… _why_?

He holds the dolphin's head up near his ear, and then holds it in front of his face.

"Here?" he asks it, a small smile on his face. "In front of all these people?"

He tilts the dolphin's head up and down to make it look like it's nodding, and he chuckles.

And then he kisses it.

No, he doesn't _make out_ with it or anything, but one would think that a grown twenty-something man would be a little old for kissing stuffed animals. But here he is.

And apparently that dolphin is supposed to be her.

Which means…

Her thoughts are interrupted when he collapses backwards on his bed, hugging the stuffed dolphin to his chest and heaving a deep sigh.

"If only it was that easy," he says, staring at the ceiling.

She decides to get out of there before she sneezes or something and blows her cover. So she sneaks back to her room and collapses on her own bed, calling Trish again.

"I thought you were annoyed with me," she says when she answers the phone.

"I just saw something…and I don't know what to do about it."

"Well, what'd you see?"

"I can't really tell you."

Ally knows that if she tells Trish she thinks that maybe Austin might possibly like her, Trish will bring up the fact that Austin's dating Kira, to which Ally knows she would blurt out that they actually _aren't_ dating anymore, thus betraying Austin's trust and quite possibly ruining any chances she has with him.

"Well, why'd you call me, then?" Trish asks.

"I don't know."

"Okay…well, it's late. Can I go to sleep?"

"Yeah, sorry," Ally says sheepishly.

She and Trish say their goodbyes and hang up, and Ally is left staring at the ceiling and replaying what she saw in her mind.

It makes her wonder if Austin was leaving out some details about his breakup with Kira. If he really does like her – which, from what she saw could be the case – then it would make perfect sense for her to be the reason Austin and Kira broke up. And it would also make perfect sense that Austin wasn't as upset about it as he probably should've been.

She debates going to the music room to try to get all her thoughts into a song so she can sleep, but then she realizes that _Austin_ might be down there and she doesn't think she can face him yet without blurting out everything she saw. And the last thing she needs is for him to know that she knows something's up.

So she tosses and turns and eventually falls asleep, only to be plagued with dreams of him. But if she's being honest, she doesn't really mind.

* * *

By now, she's used to being dressed up like a Barbie doll by the stylists, and she actually kind of likes it. It's nice not having to worry about whether or not she'll look good in what she's wearing because, well, that's the stylists' job.

She and Austin are going to a ball – yes, a _ball_ – tonight to celebrate the release of her first single.

That's right, her _first single_. She's been in LA for a little under three weeks, and she's already recorded a single, which is to be released to the world at midnight tonight. And she already has a pretty large following – at least, for only being in the spotlight for less than a month.

So yeah, tonight she's going to a ball like the ones in the princess movies that's being put on in _her_ honor, and she's being accompanied by Austin Moon, who, as far as she knows, might possibly _like_ her.

It all seems too surreal.

Just as the stylists finish getting her ready, Austin walks into the room, fixing the cuffs on his tux. She stands up, and he gives her a quick glance before focusing on his cuffs again. But then he does a double take, looking her up and down.

"You look amazing," he tells her.

She smiles a bit, fighting the blush trying to make its way to her cheeks.

"Thank you, thank you," one of the stylists – Ally's pretty sure her name is Lucy – says.

Austin grins, walking over to Ally and taking her hand. He twirls her slowly, admiring her dress.

"You really went all out," he says to the stylists.

"This thing _is_ in my honor, after all," Ally reminds him.

"Gotta impress all the big stars that are coming," Austin says with a nod.

"I don't even wanna know everyone who's gonna be there. It'll make me nervous."

Austin smiles at her. "Just remember, this is _your_ party for the release of _your_ awesome single."

"You think it's awesome?"

Austin nods, beaming. "It'll top the charts, guaranteed. I'm so proud of you."

She smiles shyly, and he pulls her into him for a hug.

"Don't wrinkle the dress!" Lucy shrieks, causing Austin and Ally to jump apart.

"Sorry," Austin mutters. "Shall we?" He offers his arm to Ally.

She giggles a bit. "We shall."

She loops her arm through his and together they walk outside to the waiting limo.

"So, you're gonna have to do a little press while we're there, just to promote the single and let the media in on the party."

"Just me?"

"I'll probably be there with you."

She nods, exhaling in relief. "How much press are we talking?"

"Just a few interviews. Nothing crazy. You're there to have _fun_ , Ally."

She smiles a bit.

"Oh, and guess what?" he says.

"What?"

"We have a day off tomorrow."

"We do?"

He nods, grinning. "Absolutely nothing to do. We can hang out at home all day, or drive around LA, or go to the beach, or do _whatever_."

She grins, too. "I can't wait."

"But in the morning we'll probably have to deal with hangovers."

"But I'm only nineteen," she says, tilting her head.

He shrugs innocently, and she rolls her eyes.

When they arrive at the ball, the sun is almost set. Unfortunately, it's being held inside so she can't really enjoy the last bit of the sunset, but as soon as she sees the ballroom, the sunset is long forgotten.

There are circular tables covered in white table cloths scattered along the edges of the room with a huge dance floor in the middle. Waiters and waitresses wander between the mingling celebrities carrying trays of hors d'oeuvres and glasses of champagne. She recognizes a few famous faces in the crowd of people, and she takes a deep breath.

Austin leans over to whisper in her ear. "They're all here for you. But no pressure."

She turns her head and narrows her eyes at him while he laughs at her.

They walk around and mingle for a little while, and she does her best not to get too star struck. Luckily, Austin's always there to save the day if she gets particularly tongue-tied in front of someone she's a fan of.

When the media arrives, she immediately drags Austin over to get the interviews out of the way. They're quick – about five minutes each – so she only spends about half an hour with the press.

After that, Austin drags her to the DJ in the corner of the room. He lets go of her arm to go talk to him in suspicious whispers, and then suddenly the music stops. She knits her eyebrows in confusion, but all Austin does is smile and take her arm again.

He walks her to the front of the room, and suddenly all eyes are on them. She tries not to be terrified.

Austin calls over a waiter and takes two glasses of champagne off the tray, handing one to her.

"I'd like to make a toast," the blond says, loud enough to be heard by everyone in the massive ballroom. He looks over at Ally, smiling. "I ran a talent contest to try to find someone that I could help make a star. But I didn't exactly do that. Because looking at you, Ally, I'm realizing that all I really did was open up this world to you. But you did the work, you charmed the world, and you achieved all this for yourself in less than three weeks. I mean, you're almost an overnight sensation. I couldn't be more proud of you, and I can't wait to see you take over the world."

He raises his glass, and everyone else in the room follows, including her. She smiles at him, and she's surprised to find herself holding back tears because of everything he said. Austin notices, so he pulls her into him for a hug with the arm that isn't holding his drink.

They pull away and clink their glasses together before both drinking the contents. Then the music starts up again and everyone starts dancing.

Austin takes her empty glass and sets it down on a table along with his before turning back around to face her with a grin. He holds out his hand and raises his eyebrows.

She takes it hesitantly, looking at him in confusion.

"Wanna dance?" he asks her.

"You know I can't dance," she reminds him.

"It's easy," he says. "I'll teach you."

She freezes for a second, her mind flashing back to that night she saw him say those exact words to the stuffed dolphin that was supposed to be her. She swallows nervously.

"Okay…"

He grins and leads her to the dance floor, twirling her as soon as they get to the spot he wanted. Then he starts dancing with her, and she doesn't really have a choice but to follow his lead.

She sets her nerves and feelings aside, though, and lets herself have fun dancing with her best friend. But with the funny faces he's making at her and the intermittent bursts of giggles at her awful dancing, she can't help but notice those feelings for him bubbling up.

So she does what any other rational person would do when faced with a situation like this and tries to drink it away with glass after glass of champagne. She's surprised that they're letting her have alcohol, considering she's underage, but maybe celebrities get special treatment or something. Austin's mentioned that it happens all the time.

By the time the ball is over, she and Austin have gotten themselves pretty drunk on the champagne, and if she's being honest the feelings have gotten worse. As they sit giggling in the limo on the ride home, all she really wants to do is kiss him.

She's brought out of her drunken thoughts when he speaks, his words slurring together.

"The song is so good! Even the waiters were dancing to it!"

"I can't believe they played it!" she giggles.

"That's the whole reason we had the party!" he reminds her.

"Oh yeah."

When they get home, they stumble inside his house, using each other for support. Once they're inside, he looks at her, and she looks at him.

"Kiss me," she tells him, despite a tiny part of her mind telling her this is a bad idea.

He knits his eyebrows and looks behind him before looking at her again and pointing at himself, raising his eyebrows, as if he thought she was talking to someone else.

She nods, and as soon as she does his arms are around her waist and his lips are on hers, his thumbs skimming her bare skin where her dress is backless. She slowly snakes her arms around his neck, closing her eyes and trying to press herself closer to him.

But then he pulls away, far too soon for her liking. She opens her eyes to see that he's already watching her, his eyes a few shades darker than usual.

Before she knows it they're in his room and clothes are coming off and she _knows_ she's gonna regret this in the morning but for the time being she's gonna enjoy it.

* * *

The light gives her a headache before she even opens her eyes. Or maybe she's had the headache the whole time. She opens her eyes slowly, squinting in the sunlight streaming into the room between the closed curtains.

She realizes almost immediately that this is not her room.

The next thing she notices is her dress on the floor, and then she realizes that the massive heap of pillows and blankets next to her is _moving_.

She groans – mostly because of the pain in her head – and uses a pillow to whack the person next to her.

"Austin," she whines tiredly.

No response.

She whacks him again. "Austin."

"Mmm," she hears faintly from under the pile.

"Did we have sex last night?" Her voice is whinier than it's ever been, which is probably due to her headache and how exhausted she is.

"Mmm." Sounds like a yes to her.

"Did we use protection?"

"Mmm."

"That's good."

The pile of pillows shifts, and suddenly his head appears beside her. She looks at him, and he stares back at her, his eyelids still half-closed.

"I need Advil," he says tiredly. "Or anything."

"Bring me some," she tells him, closing her eyes to try to block out the too-bright light.

She feels him start getting up, but then she hears a thud.

"Are you okay?" she whines, not moving.

"Mmhm…I think I'm just gonna hang down here for a while," he replies, his voice muffled.

"Hey, buddy!" she hears a voice exclaim after she hears the door open. "Wakey wakey, eggs and – holy _crap_ , man! You didn't tell me you were bringing a girl home!"

"It's not a girl, Dez," Austin's voice comes from where he's probably laying on the floor. "It's Ally."

"Oh. Hi, Ally," Dez says cheerily.

She lifts an arm to wave at him before dropping it back onto the bed.

"Get us Advil," Austin whines.

"On it," Dez replies.

She hears footsteps, some rustling, and then she feels the mattress shift as someone gets on the bed.

"Here you go," Dez says after a few more footsteps.

She finally opens her eyes and sits up a bit, covering herself with the blanket and squinting in the sunlight.

Austin passes her some pills and a glass of water, and she takes the medicine wordlessly.

"Breakfast is on the counter," the redhead says. "I'll see you guys later."

He waves and walks out, and she would laugh at how comical that whole situation was if her head wasn't pounding so bad.

Austin and Ally sit in silence for a while as they wait for the medicine to kick in and help their headaches.

Austin is the first one to get up, and he pulls a pair of sweatpants on over the boxers he's already wearing with his eyes closed. Then he makes his way over to his closet and pulls out a t-shirt, tossing it to her.

She catches it clumsily and pulls it on, getting up too. The shirt reaches down to almost her knees. She grabs her dress from last night off the floor.

"Should we, like, talk about it or something?" Austin asks, yawing and stretching, scratching his chest.

"Probably," she says, yawning too. "See you at breakfast?"

He nods and gives her a thumbs-up, and she walks back to her room.

She clumsily gets ready for her day off by changing into pajama pants and a tank top and brushing her teeth. She splashes some cold water on her face to try to wake herself up and stares at herself in the mirror.

That's when it hits her.

 _I had sex with Austin Moon last night_.

Her eyes widen, and she rushes downstairs, only to be met by Austin pacing in the living room, biting his thumb nail.

"Austin," she says.

He looks at her, his eyes wide too. "Freaking out now," he says.

"What do we do?"

"No one can find out about this," he says. "The media will have a field day. They'll think I'm cheating on Kira with you and we'll both look like horrible people."

"They don't know about you and Kira yet?"

"I let her be the one to tell people!" he says.

"Why?"

"Because I'm the one who dumped her!"

She raises her eyebrows. "You are?"

"Yeah, but whatever. We had _sex_ last night. Why did we do that?!"

"We were drunk?" she tries.

"Well, _yeah_ , but – "

"I have a confession," she says, biting her lip.

He raises his eyebrows. "I'm listening."

"A few days ago, I overheard you talking in your room, so I went over and looked in and I saw you talking to a stuffed dolphin like it was me and then you kissed it."

His face goes pale. "You saw that?"

She nods, and he grimaces.

"I have another confession," she says. "I…like you."

"You do?" he asks incredulously.

"Yeah."

"Well…I like you, too. That's, um, that's why I broke up with Kira. I lied when I said it wasn't about you. Sorry."

"It's okay. So…now what?"

"I'm not sure."

"Great."

So they go about their day, trying to forget what happened until they can come up with a solution of what to do with their feelings.

They actually go about the next _few_ days this way, and she gets more and more anxious the closer they get to the end of the month.

But their solution comes almost like a much-needed miracle.

Said solution is actually a _person_ , who goes by the name of Ronnie Ramone.

Ronnie Ramone is the owner of Ramone Records, and he offers Ally a record deal as soon as she walks into his office.

"I heard your single," he tells her, "and I want more. I want you to sign to my label. What do you say?"

She smiles, not knowing what to say at first because this is all happening so _fast_ and her dream is finally coming true.

"O – okay," she stutters.

"Okay," he repeats, smiling and shaking her hand. "I'll work out the details with your manager."

Her manager is the same as Austin's manager, which works out pretty well.

But that means that Austin's manager will tell Austin the news first if she doesn't get to him fast enough, so as soon as she leaves Ronnie's office, she calls Austin.

"Hey, how'd the meeting go?" he asks her.

"I got a record deal. He wants to sign me to his label," she says, her voice shaking with excitement.

" _What_?!" Austin exclaims.

"It's happening!" she squeals. "I got a record deal!"

"That's amazing!" Austin says, his excitement evident in his voice.

"And do you know what this means?" she asks, lowering her voice.

"What?"

"It means I have to stay in LA because I have a _career_ in music now. And _that_ means that we could actually…"

"Wow, you're right," he says, coming to the same realization as she did. "We can be together."

"So…what do you say? Maybe dinner tonight to celebrate my record deal that isn't technically official yet?"

"Are you asking me out?" he asks her.

"Are you saying yes?"

"Yes." She can hear his smile in the tone of his voice, and she can't help but smile too.

* * *

"So, you've got two singles out, a music video, an album on the way, a duet with Austin Moon, and millions of fans already begging you to tour, and it's only been a few months since you came into the spotlight. How are you feeling?"

Ally laughs kind of breathlessly as the interviewer lists off all her accomplishments. "Well, none of this would've been possible without Austin, so I'm feeling incredibly grateful to him, and of course all my fans, whether they supported me as soon as I was announced as the winner of the talent contest or they just found out about me today." She smiles and looks over at Austin, who's sitting next to her.

"Austin, what's it like to see her accomplishing all this, knowing that you're the reason for it?"

He shakes his head. "That's the thing. I'm not. I mean, yeah, I chose her as the winner of the contest and I kind of brought her into the music world, but she accomplished all of this for herself. I said it at the release party for her first single and I'll say it again. She worked for it, and she deserves it."

"What did you learn from Austin throughout this whole experience?" the interviewer asks, focusing his attention on her again.

"Too much to even describe," she says, leaning back against the couch she and Austin are seated on. "Every single day that month I learned a million things, and I still learn something new every day just experiencing the whole process with my own music."

"And Austin, did _you_ learn anything from Ally?"

Austin nods. "Absolutely. When we were doing the contest, I was kind of in a place where I wasn't sure why I kept doing what I was doing, you know? I was wondering what the point of all of it was, mainly because the fame that comes with the job can be pretty overwhelming, and I don't get many breaks. But then Ally came and she saw everything with this…this look of pure _wonder_ and I realized that _that's_ why I do it. It's because I love music and I love inspiring people to chase their dreams, and if that means I have to run away from paparazzi every so often, then so be it." He smiles and shrugs, draping his arm across the back of the couch behind Ally.

"That's awesome," the interviewer says. "Now, I have to ask, or the fans will probably chop my head off. But rumors have been flying around since Austin's breakup with Kira that there's something… _going on_ with you two. Can you confirm or deny anything?" he asks.

Austin and Ally look at each other, smiling.

"Uh…" he starts, laughing kind of nervously and raising his eyebrows at her, nodding slightly.

She smiles a little more and takes a deep, nervous breath. "There _might_ be something… _going on_ ," she says into the mic she's holding.

"We're dating," Austin deadpans quietly into his own mic.

"Sorry, you're _what_?" the interviewer asks.

Ally looks at Austin, laughing, because she didn't know that today was gonna be the day they officially announced that they're together. But apparently he did.

"I am dating Ally Dawson," Austin says. "And she's dating me. It's a mutual, um, dating scenario."

Ally snorts, covering her face and burying it in Austin's shoulder so no one sees how red it is.

"What?" Austin asks her, laughing too. "Is that not true?"

She sits up again and uncovers her face to look at him, giggling. "No, it's just – I didn't realize we were just gonna tell the world today. Just bluntly like that. I don't know." She breaks into a fit of giggles again.

"Well, there you have it," the interviewer says, sounding shocked and amused as he looks into the camera. "You heard it here first. Austin Moon and Ally Dawson have confirmed their relationship. Don't forget to buy their new single, which comes out on Friday. See you next time."

Austin and Ally don't stop giggling until they're back at home.

She still lives with him – because really, it just makes sense – but she went back home for a few weeks after her official month here was over so she could see her family and friends and pack up everything she wanted to take with her to LA. Now, her room is decorated and has a little more of her personality in it, and there are pictures from her old home on shelves and tables throughout the mansion.

"So, my little mentee, what do you think the reactions are gonna be?" he asks her as they sit down on the couch.

"Eighty-five percent happy, fifteen percent not happy."

"Sounds about right," he says with a nod. "But _we're_ happy, so who cares?"

She grins. "Mmhm."

He smiles gently and brushes a strand of hair behind her ear, cupping her cheek and kissing her softly.

"You ready to take over the world?" he asks her quietly.

She nods, grinning, and grabs his collar to kiss him again.

* * *

 **THIS FIC TOOK ME FOREVER TO WRITE** **! But, I mean, at over 14,000 words (HOLY CRAP) it makes sense. Anyway, I love this a lot and I think it's one of the best fics I've ever written, so I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. As always, thanks for reading and I love you all!**


End file.
